Customer Reviews

Ordinary People

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The second disc is not even a DVD; it is a CD containing music by Echo & the Bunnymen, Erasure, INXS and a-ha. It is the same disc included on other "I love the 80's" DVDs. It has nothing to do with the movie. It is a total rip-off -- Totally misleading advertising. You get nothing on this set that was not included in prior editions of Ordinary People.

A sad, but uplifting film, the story unveils the dissolution of a family afer the tragedy of having lost a teenaged son in a boating accident. The cast is perfect! Timothy Hutton is the younger son, suicidal from having witnessed his beloved older brother perish. Judd Hirsch is his therapist. Donald Sutherland is his Dad, sympathetic to his younger son's plight, and Mary Tyler Moore is his Mom, struggling the most with the loss, while trying to avoid the horrendous pain by attempting to retrun to normalcy. The surrounding cast is equally splendid, and the directing is first rate.

Whats is so "special" about this special edition? Can someone tell me why it features two disks? As far as I know, Redford has never consented to do a director's commentary on the film and there are no "making of" documentaries in existence. What are they selling here?

EXTRAORDINARIA PELICULA MERECIO LOS PREMIOS,SOLO FALTO A MARY TYLER MOORE EL DE MEJOR ACTRIZ, QUE ARGUMENTO Y UNA MAGNIFICA DIRECCION DE ROBERT REDFORD( OSCAR )...INOLVIDABLE DRAMA.

When "Ordinary People" was released (I was 11 years old) I was discouraged if not actually disallowed to see it by my folks.

Now, there were two catagories that films fell in to earn 'disallowment': the first were films too bizarre and horrific to be seen by a pre-teen. They included at the time "Eraserhead", "Dawn of the Dead", and "Alien", and man, how I wanted to see those films! I did eventually see "Alien" via HBO early on but the two former films not until I was in my late twenties (by that time more through inavailability than disallowment).

But the second catagory were films too 'adult' in theme and content, films my mother characterised as 'slit-your-wrist flicks', in other words utterly depressing and gloomy. They included Woody Allen's "Interiors" and "Ordinary People" by Robert Redford.

I had already been traumatised by the death of "The Little Prince" in the film of the same name and by Disney's "Bambi" so I never understood what the big deal was - gloom I could handle. Yet, I saw neither Redford's nor Allen's film until last night on TCM.

I was expecting a truly heart-wrenching and gut-turning plot and performance. What I receieved was a two hour info-mmercial for psychoanalysis wrapped in a pointless story concerning terrible events the viewer isn't even aware of until the film's end.

Now, I like gloomy movies. The only thing to like here is a very beautiful, young and sweet Elizabeth McGovern. Hutton is sympathetic at least and it's nice to see Sutherland stick by him, but this is not the devasting film that it's advertisements portrayed when it came out.

For 'devastating' I think there would have to be a sort of 'snow-ball effect' apparent in the plot. You should be able to feel things getting worse, picking up pace and ready to crash. It may be there in terms of Moore's and Sutherland's on screen relationship but it didn't reach me on an initial viewing. The film focuses to much on Hutton for this to be apparent or sincere. In fact, the entire ending felt tacked on, almost maliciously, in an effort to punish Moore's character.

After waiting almost thirty years to be impressed I'm sorry to say that Redford's freshman effort left me disappointed.